


Ghosts Only

by thedarkestgrey



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blame the Noodle Sisters, Crack Treated Seriously, Drunken Shenanigans, F/M, Gendry is an Arizona Dirtbag sorry not sorry, Halloween, House Party, Humor, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Spice Girls References, Theon forces everyone to wear bedsheet ghost costumes, Tucson, they were roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:20:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27259324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedarkestgrey/pseuds/thedarkestgrey
Summary: If Theon has to sit through one more Game Night watching Jon make heart eyes at Sansa without making an actual move, he might scream. Throwing everyone together in a Halloween House Party while dressed as bedsheet ghosts is a sure fire way to get people to admit their feelings right? Maybe he'll even take his own advice...Arya, on the other hand, was ready to move on from getting her heart broken. Sure, Gendry might be a lowkey Arizona dirtbag, but he didn't leave her for college on the other side of the country. But now her ex has moved back to Tucson and into the rental across from her brothers, and she's not entirely sure what to do about it.AKA: A MultiPOV Halloween Modern AU thats just on the right side of crack
Relationships: Jon Snow/Sansa Stark, Margaery Tyrell/Ygritte, Podrick Payne/Arya Stark, Secondary Ships - Relationship, Theon Greyjoy/Robb Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	Ghosts Only

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sarahcakes613](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahcakes613/gifts), [Jillypups](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jillypups/gifts), [SassyEggs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassyEggs/gifts), [vanillacoconuts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanillacoconuts/gifts).



> Tagged relationships are the endgame people. Yes, I ship Arya/Podrick, why? Because I can and I do what I want. Special thanks to weddersins who gladly beta reads anything I send to her, even when it comes with a preface of "oh my god I'm so sorry I'm making you edit this for me" hahaha
> 
> Basically sarahcakes and jillypups gave me this insane prompt and I ran with it. Part Two is being wrapped up and I expect it'll be posted this weekend. I'll be back to my other projects after this finishes! 
> 
> It's been a minute since I've written JonxSansa, so hey! Good to see y'all again!

_**October 15th 2020 Evening Theon** _

“You want to do what now?” Robb questions his roommate through a mouthful of pizza.

Theon sighs, eyes rolling as he reaches for another slice of the Meat Lovers that’s sitting in the middle of the coffee table. “Ghost Only Costume Party. You know, kinda like a masquerade, except everybody shows up dressed in same costume. Secret identities and shit. It’ll be sick.”

Robb nods thoughtfully before he wrinkles his brow. “But… what exactly is the _point_ of all of this?”

“Bro, I know she’s your sister, but if I have to sit through one more game night with Snow making puppy eyes at Sansa, I’m going to rip my hair out. Which would be a shame, since we both know I have great hair.”

Robb considers this a only a moment before replying, “Okay, okay -you’re right. I keep telling him to just go for it, but Jon’s chickenshit when it comes to ladies. You know Ygritte not only asked _him_ out, but she was also the one to end it? Even though he’d been telling me for weeks that he was going to break up with her.”

Theon scratches his chin, thinking. “Isn’t it kinda Sansa’s fault Jon and Ygritte broke up anyways?”

“Yeah, I guess -technically. She was the one that brought Margaery to game night, but _you_ were the drunk asshole that peer pressured us all into playing Spin the Bottle. Margie insists she didn’t even know she liked girls until she kissed Ygritte that night.”

“Margie is a goddamn liar. I saw the gay panic in her eyes the first time she saw Ygritte.”

“Gay panic? How would you know about gay panic?” Robb chuckles as he elbows Theon lightly in the ribs. He doesn’t notice the blush that spreads on Theons face at the contact, or how his best friend starts coughing suddenly as he moves away from him.

“Uh, my sister’s a lesbian, dude, I’m on the up and up about this stuff. Trust me.”

“Okay so. Halloween party then? Who all do we invite? Only the regular crowd, or should I tell my sisters to invite their friends too?”

“Just leave this up to me. I got this handled.”

* * *

**  
** **_October 31st 2020 Morning Sansa_ **

“I can’t believe Robb believed _Theon_ when he said he had this handled,” Sansa huffs as she opens the hatch to her mom's Kia Sorento. She would have driven her own car to Costco, but her Mini Cooper didn’t have the space for the haul she was bringing over to the house that her brother and his best friend had rented in Armory Park.

The passenger side door slams shut. Her younger sister Arya stuffs her phone into the back pocket of her jeans before she begins to load her arms up with the reusable grocery bags their mother keeps in the back of the car.

“Well I can’t believe _you_ let Robb talk us in to doing his bitch work,” Arya grumbles.

The front door to Robb’s house suddenly slams shut loud enough to cause the two Stark sisters to jump. The noisemaker is only Jon Snow, Robbs other best friend and Sansa’s not-so-secret-crush, who is preoccupied with pulling a lighter out of his pocket – presumably for the cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Jon looks up from under his mop of raven curls as he’s flicking the lighter on and notices the sisters struggling with the groceries - he’s more than halfway to the car before he even asks if they need a hand.

Sansa tries not to blush as she pushes a long strand of auburn hair behind her ear, stumbles over her response before Arya just rolls her eyes at her and shoves a grocery bag at Jon.

“Thanks Jon, I assume Dumb and Dumber are inside?” Arya questions as she pulls another bag out of the back.

“Yeah, Theon is trying to set up lights while Robb is scrubbing down the kitchen. I was off work today, so I offered to swing by and help with the pre-party clean up.”

“Did they get to the bathrooms yet, or am I gonna be dragged into that? Because if so, I’ll just be calling an Uber and heading home, there’s not a chance I’m touching bachelor bathrooms.”

Jon grins that soft, affectionate grin that seems reserved for Arya only – the one that makes Sansa the tiniest bit jealous because he _never_ smiles at her. “Robb was elbow deep in a toilet when I got here a few hours ago, you’re in the clear.”

She stands there awkwardly as the two of them have their easy conversation, just holding her bags as Jon chats with Arya without acknowledging her presence at all. She could easily sidestep the two of them to head inside, but she doesn’t want to seem rude. Especially when she’s mostly convinced that Jon can hardly stand her, any time she tries to make conversation during game nights Jon finds any and all excuses to flee her presence. Arya once suggested that her signature perfume, Coach Poppy, was too strong and Jon was overwhelmed by it, and Sansa had taken to not wearing it when she knew Jon was going to be around. Which of course was silly, but she still did it anyway in her desperate attempts to gain the attention of her brother's best friend.

“Uh, hello Sansa,” Jon finally says as he turns towards her. Arya finally scampers off into the house.

She does her absolute best not to completely preen over the way her name sounds coming out of Jon’s mouth, and if she fails slightly, who could blame her? She gives him her best 1000-megawatt smile and throws a silent thank you to her teenage orthodontist Dr. Baratheon for all the work he did.

“Hey Jon,” she replies, trying to play it cool.

She’s fairly sure she sees Theon peeking his head out the front window, but she pays him no mind. _Jon Snow_ is talking to _her_.

“So,” the raven-haired man starts, closing the hatch to the Kia, “you’re actually coming tonight, right?”

Sansa nods her head in what she hopes is a casual and totally not aggressive way. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Margie wanted to do 4th Ave tonight, but a party in Armory Park is close enough if this turns out boring.”

Jon snorts. “Theon doesn’t _do_ boring.”

“You’re not wrong there, Snow,” Theon himself replies, opening the door for the two of them.

Sansa sticks her tongue out at Theon in a completely childish manner, but the 26-year-old just returns the sentiment with the addition of two crude hand gestures. She can hear Arya snickering in the background, but it’s a distant sound because Jon is telling Theon to _leave her alone_ and Theon is telling him to _go to hell_.

“God you’re a dick, Greyjoy,” Jon says as he places his bags down on the secondhand kitchen table. Robb whines that they are already messing up his freshly cleaned space as Arya tells him to hush while not tearing her eyes away from her phone.

“There’s more in the Kia,” Sansa tells her older brother as she tosses him their mother’s keys. Her brother gives her a little salute and drags Theon with him as she, Arya, and Jon start unpacking everything they just brought in.

By the time the five of them are done unloading the bags and boxes from Costco, there’s enough food and alcohol to serve a small army. And that’s not including the several pizzas they ordered for that night.

Sansa looks at her Apple Watch and notices the time – it's already past noon and she needs to be back here by 7pm. She tugs her purse up her shoulder and tells Arya they need to get going. 

Arya groans, reluctantly tearing her eyes away from her phone in annoyance. “Didn't we just get here?”

Sansa rolls her eyes, “Yeah, but unless you want to be more than fashionably late now’s our chance to leave and get ready.”

Theon crosses his arms across his chest and stares the sisters down. “What do you mean ‘get ready’, this is a Ghost Costume Party! It's not hard to cut eye holes into a sheet.”

The whole idea is so absurd that even Arya starts laughing at him. “You can’t be serious about that. It’s Halloween, Theon.”

“Fuck yeah, I’m serious. It’s basically a masquerade. Except... bed sheets, instead of masks.”

Sansa can’t help but stick her hand on her hip and pull out the sorority girl bitch pose she had perfected at U of A. “I’m not wearing a bedsheet to your party, Theon.”

It shouldn’t surprise her how easily her brother’s roommate adopts her pose. “Then don’t come to my party, Sansa.”

Arya cuts in before Sansa has a chance to reply. “Jesus, Sansa, just wear your costume under the bedsheet and if it gets boring, head off to 4th Ave with Margie and Ygritte. Now, let's just head back to the house. I’ll even let you do my makeup if we leave now.”

Sansa pouts at not getting to tell off Theon, but the lure of dolling up Ayra is too strong. “Can I fix your hair too?”

Arya throws her hands up in the air, clearly aggravated. “It’s gonna be under a sheet, but fine, whatever.”

Sansa pulls the keys out of her purse. “Alright. See you two doofuses later,” she says with a wave goodbye to her brother and his roommate as Arya drags her to the front door. She wishes she could say bye to Jon too, who has somehow managed to keep up a conversation with her this morning, but he wandered out of the front of the house twenty-something minutes ago and she hasn’t seen him since.

She’s a little too occupied with her own thoughts and doesn’t notice that Arya has stopped dead in her tracks just outside the front door. She walks straight into her little sister and practically knocks the two of them over.

Arya, always the more surefooted one between the two of them, somehow manages to keep herself upright while Sansa catches herself on the doorframe.

“What the…” she trails off when she looks up and finally notices what has caused Arya to stop like this.

The groan that escapes her mouth when she sees Podrick Payne standing on the sidewalk talking to Jon is loud enough that the two men stop their conversation and look over to where the sisters stand.

“Fuck,” Sansa whispers to herself as Arya storms off in the direction of the two men.

* * *

**  
** _**October 31st 2020 Midday Arya** _

Arya is not entirely sure why she’s rage walking towards her ex-boyfriend, but her vision sort of whites out and she can hear someone, who may or may not be her, yelling. Or Sansa. Or maybe its both of them, she’s not quite herself right now and can’t really tell.

This is the first time she’s seen Pod in well over two years, the last time being when they broke up outside her parent’s house. In the middle of a monsoon. Right after he told her he was taking a scholarship to a school on the other side of the country just as she was getting ready to start her freshman year at U of A. The prick. 

They had talked since then, a handful of times, mostly conversations that ended with both of them in tears and Arya telling him to fuck off forever. But something broke in her just now, seeing him live in flesh and bone.

It takes her a whole minute to realize that it's not Jon who has a loose, but secure grip on her wrists to keep her from hitting Pod but Pod himself. She takes a deep breath and looks up into his sad, deep brown eyes, and gives him a small nod before he lets go of her wrists and takes a full body length step backwards.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbles as her Converse kick at a stone on the road.

“You didn’t get me. My Arya reflexes are still good,” Pod says easily as he tucks his hands into the back pockets of his jeans.

“Yeah well. Either way. That wasn’t cool of me. I just. I don’t know, I kinda blacked out there for a second. I uh, I didn’t expect to see you.”

“It’s uh… it’s cool Arya. I um. I should have told you. Uncle Illyn had mentioned it to me, but um. I just got busy with the move, and… yeah.”

Her mind latches on two things, the first being that Pod still talked with his Uncle Illyn about her and the second was the word _move_. What on earth was he talking about?

“What move?” Arya is nothing if not blunt. Podrick knows this well.

“I uh. I moved back. I graduated in May, and while the East coast has its benefits. Yeah uh, nothing really beats Tucson. And um. I mean. Uncle Illyn is getting up there, you know? And yeah, his nurse is around, um, pretty much all the time, but uh. I just. I wanted to be close,” her ex explains in that still cute way of his that he did in the beginning of their relationship, when it was all sparkly and new and she made him nervous as hell.

“So. You’re here.”

“Yeah. I’m here.”

She pauses, for just a moment, because Uncle Illyn’s house isn’t in this neighborhood.

“But what are you doing _here_ exactly?”

Podrick blushes a spectacular shade of red, one Arya hasn’t seen in person for years but remembers well. She’s probably not going to like what he has to say just by the look on his face. Fuck, does he have a girlfriend? Did he bring another woman to their hometown? Some tall, gorgeous blonde who would never break up with him, perfect Podrick Payne?

He scratches at his ear, eyebrows furrowed. “Robb didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

He sighs, looking pained. “I uh, I rent the house across the street.”

“Oh,” she says before giving him a nod and turning around, back to where her sister and Jon watch with a mixture of caution and intrigue.

She doesn’t look at her sister when she tells her she wants to leave now, and somehow Sansa manages to make it to the corner of the street before Arya bursts into tears in the passenger seat of her mother's Kia Sorento.  
  


* * *

  
 _ **October 31** **st 2020 Midday Jon**_  
  
“Shit,” he hears Podrick mutter from his spot on the sidewalk. Jon can’t help but feel some pity for the poor guy - Arya Stark was a force quite unlike anyone else he had the pleasure of knowing. If she wasn’t so passionate about pursing dance as a career, he could see her going to work for the CIA – taking people out for the US government would be up her alley.

He takes an awkward step towards the younger man, claps a hand on his shoulder and asks if he’s okay.

“Yeah, I just. I knew I should have told her. I was planning on it. I just, I didn’t recognize the car. I would have stayed away if I did,” Podrick says, almost apologetically.

Jon brushes Pod’s worries away. “You didn’t know. Catelyn got the Kia after Arya moved into the dorms and brought her own car, since she only had the boys to worry about. Sansa borrowed it to bring the food for the party tonight.”

Podrick looks up, eyes hopeful. “Is Arya coming?”

Jon can’t help but grin at the look of hope in the young man’s eyes. “Yeah man, she’ll be here.”

“Do you… do you know if she’s seeing anyone?”

“Afraid I don’t man. If she is, it isn’t serious, she hasn’t brought anyone to game night other than Wylla the whole time she’s been in college.”

Podrick nods before telling Jon he’ll see him tonight and making his way back across the street. Jon feels his phone buzz in his pocket, and pulls it out to read the caller ID telling him its none other than his ex-girlfriend – Ygritte.

He knows exactly what the call is going to be about before he even accepts the call.

“Did you do it yet?” his ex asks before he has a chance to say hello. He groans.

“No Ygritte. I did not,” is his reply, and when he catches the echo of his voice he throws out a hello to Margie, because he’s obviously on the Bluetooth speaker in one of their cars.

“Hello Jonny Boy. Now, why haven’t you done it?” Margaery interrogates and Jon can hear the Law School Student in her voice.

“You ladies don’t think it’s a bit weird how heavily you’re invested in my love life, all things considered?”

The simultaneous no shouldn’t be as surprising as it is really.

“Sansa is my best friend, I just want her happy. I wouldn’t tell you she was crazy for you if that wasn’t true,” Margie says sincerely. Jon just rolls his eyes.

“She’s never indicated that she can even tolerate me.”

Ygritte snorts. “Because you don’t want to believe that she does. You’re a total catch Jon, who wouldn’t want you?”

Jon sighs, running a hand across his face. “Well. You for one.”

“Yeah. But that’s because I realized I happen to also like women _and_ that you were crushing on your best friends little sister all within 24 hours of each other. I set you free.”

“You should be thanking us Jon.”

He just chuckles into the receiver. “Well. She’s gonna be at Robb and Theon’s party tonight. If I can find her in the crowd, I’ll pluck up the courage to ask her on a date, alright?”

“What do you mean ‘if you can find her’? There’s no way you could miss her, your ability to find that girl in a crowd is scary good,” his ex comments as he hears Margie murmur in agreement.

“The Ghost Theme.”

The women groan in unison. “Theon is really serious about that, huh?” Margie asks.

“Yeah. So make sure you have your bed sheets with ya, because he’s not letting people in without them,” Jon tells them before giving the pair his goodbyes and ending the call. He’s been outside for nearly an hour at this point, and he’s not even sure Robb and Theon remember he’s still here.

Honestly, it might be a good thing. He might be able to sneak away and not come back.

Unfortunately the front door slams shut before he gets a chance to escape. 

“Sansa just texted me. Arya saw Pod, huh?” Robb says as he runs a hand carelessly through his auburn curls.

“Yeah. It wasn’t great,” Jon tells him with a shrug.

Robb nods. “She’s a tough kid. I know she misses him, and he definitely misses her. They’ll figure their shit out.”

“Why didn’t you warn her?”

Robb gives him a bewildered look. “Why would I? They’re adults. They need to figure out their feelings for themselves.”

Jon gives Robb a look that _says are you kidding me?_ “Pot, meet kettle.”

Robb glares and tells him to shush. “Dude. This is different. They used to _date_. I’ve never been in a relationship with another man. I don’t even know if Theon feels the same way, or if I am just projecting my interest on him and that’s why I think the feelings are mutual.”

“You’ve been talking to Bran again, haven’t you?”

“He’s very smart.”

“He’s eighteen and graduated high school in May. Yeah, he’s known he was gay since he was like, seven, but he doesn’t have the most real-world experience.”

Robb just shrugs. “He’s had boyfriends.”

Jon laughs outright. “He kissed Tommen Baratheon twice in 7th grade and has been dating Jojen Reed since 9th grade.”

“That’s more boys than I’ve kissed,” Robb mutters.

“And less than I have, and I’m not even gay. Trust me, Theon digs you.”

Robb huffs, annoyed. “Well, are you gonna do something about that Sansa-sized crush you have? The forlorn puppy-dog look is only tolerable for so long, Snow.”

Jon scowls and pulls a cigarette out of his nearly empty pack. He’ll need more if he’s going to survive tonight.

“Cat got your tongue?” Robb ribs as Jon takes a deep inhale.

“What is it with all of you bothering me about this?”

Robb claps a hand on Jon’s shoulder and gives him a deep, long look in the eye. “You deserve to be happy too. Sansa would make you happy. You would make Sansa happy. In your own words, she digs you. Just go for it.”

Robb pats Jon’s should once before turning and walking back into his house, leaving Jon with nothing but half of a wasted cigarette and a head full of thoughts.

* * *

  
_**October 31** **st 2020 Midday Sansa** _

“Can you _please_ just sit still for another minute?” Sansa entreats her sister as she tries to apply a second coat of mascara. Arya’s phone buzzes in her lap again.

“Ugh, fine,” her younger sister whines as her phone continues to vibrate.

Sansa finishes the coat of mascara and steps back to admire her masterpiece. Unfortunately her pièce de résistance will be covered by a frickin’ bed sheet a majority of the night, but Arya looks even better than she does when she’s glammed up for a dance show.

The phone buzzes again.

“Oh my god, who on earth have you been texting all day? That phone hasn’t stopped since we left for Costco this morning.”

Arya shrugs a shoulder carelessly. “Gendry Waters.”

Sansa just shakes her head, completely clueless as to who her sister is talking about. “… And that is?”

“He’s just some guy from school.”

“Well that’s a good answer. Details, please,” she demands as she sits down at her vanity and starts filling her eyebrows.

Arya flops herself down on Sansa’s bed, and she tries not to cringe when she thinks about how much effort she put into her sister’s hair for her to just be so careless with it. There are more important matters, like finding out about this Gendry guy and perfecting her winged eyeliner.

“Well. He’s not really my friend. He’s a friend of Wylla’s, we’ve only met a few times, but he’s cute.”

“Like. A friend. Or a _friend?_ ”

“You can just ask if they’ve fucked Sansa.”

The older Stark sister glares at the younger through the vanity mirror. “Well?”

“As far as I know? They haven’t. She literally only buys weed from the dude.”

Sansas eyes widen in alarm. “A drug dealer? Arya!”

“It’s legal!”

“If you have your medicinal card.”

“Which Gendry does.”

“Oh my god Arya, no. He’s not a dispensary. That’s illegal.”

Her younger sister has the decency to look shamed face. “I’m not the one smoking it.”

Sansa sets down her makeup brush and turns her seat towards her sister. “Yeah, but you are chatting with this guy. Why?”

“… He’s cute! You talk to boys just because they are cute all the time.”

“Show me,” Sansa says as she holds her hand out for Arya’s phone. The younger Stark grumbles the whole time, but eventually pulls a picture up of the guy in question.

It takes Sansa .03 seconds to figure out why Arya thinks Gendry is cute.

“You realize this dirtbag is Blue Eyed Podrick Payne right?”

Arya looks scandalized. “No, he’s not!”

“Yes, he is!” Sansa says, flipping through the photos on this guy’s Facebook page. The more she looks, the more the resemblance becomes apparent. He really is Blue Eyed Podrick Payne, except with more party pics full of illicit contraband than Pod has probably seen in his life.

The phone buzzes with another text message from this Gendry, full of text speak Sansa wouldn’t be able to decipher despite her nearly complete Masters of Communications. She tosses the phone back to Arya, who then looks at the text with a small grin gracing her face before scurrying out of the room.

“Make good choices!” Sansa shouts half heartedly down the hall before turning back to her mirror and getting to work on her extra glam Halloween look.

* * *

  
_**October 31** **st** **2020 Afternoon Arya**_   
  


Gendry: this party is bout 2b lit thx 4 the invite.

Arya: yeah np. hoping no sibs try 2 ruin my good nite.

Gendry: wdm

Arya: o uh. im not 21 for a few more weeks.

Gendry: k k cool well ill sneak u drinks if i gotta

Arya: haha thx  
  


There’s a knock on the outside of her doorframe, and as she looks up from her phone Sansa comes strutting in before she has a chance to say anything. Her sister is stunning to say the very least, and Arya can feel that green-eyed monster begin to bubble up under the surface just like it did when they were kids. Compared to skinny, willowy Sansa with her flowing red hair who effortlessly captured the attention of anyone with a pulse, she was just a scrawny, short, far-too-muscular-for-her-frame woman-child who still had body issues and who was _pretty sure_ the only non-family member who ever loved her was also the one that broke her heart. 

“Too bad you’re going to be wearing a bed sheet. You’re hot,” she says as Sansa stops to pose.

Her sister rolls her eyes. “Frickin’ Theon. Do you think I’ll be able to convince Jon to go to Club Congress with us when Theon’s party is a dud?”

“First of all, who’s _us_? Because my 20-year-old ass is not getting into a club on Halloween night. Second of all, are you gonna show him your costume before you leave? Because he’d be dumb to turn you down.”

Sansa does a quick twirl, the blue and red sequins of her Union Jack mini dress shimmer and shine in the lights of Arya’s bedroom. It had been Sansa’s idea, some odd months ago, to do a group costume for Halloween when she came across the Union Jack dress in a vintage shop downtown. Arya had agreed, albeit reluctantly, when her sister had asked her to join the group as Scary Spice after Ygritte took claim on Sporty. She got to wear a killer pair of faux leather pants that made her ass look amazing, and hopefully she’d get to them show off when Theon’s party turned out to be a bust and she got to leave.

Her sister pouts at her reflection in the vanity mirror. “The makeup isn’t too much is it? I did a Google search of Ginger’s look, and did my best to copy it, but it feels like a lot.”

Arya scoffs. “No. 100% dead hot. Total smoke show. If Jon doesn’t want to jump you in that dress, someone downtown will.”

“Thanks?” her sister replies with her nose crinkled up.

Arya’s phone buzzes again and she tries to play it cool when looking at it. This Gendry thing has been, nice, she guesses. After everything that went down with Pod, she hadn’t really dated much. Other than a few coffee dates with this guy from her English Lit class freshman year, and an on and off fling with one of the girls from one of her dance major requirements during her sophomore year – she had been pretty much single since that night in the monsoon.  
  


Gendry: if its lame we can come chill @ my place

Gendry: my roommates will b gone

This whole thing felt illicit and grown and a little reckless, enough so that she wasn’t really sure how to respond. The last few years had felt like she was drifting, lost at sea with just a life jacket keeping her afloat more often than not. She went through the motions of college, the only time feeling truly alive being when she was in a studio or on a stage dancing her heart out, while the rest of her time was spent just existing. Her therapist had told her it was normal to become depressed after ending a serious, long term relationship, and never made her feel bad for what she was feeling, but she had thought she would have let go of those feelings already – instead they lay dormant just under the surface of her skin.

Sansa is staring her down when she looks up from her phone.

“Sorry, what?” she replies to her sisters eye roll.

“Jeyne should be here in fifteen minutes. We’re heading over to Margie and Ygritte’s place, and all carpooling together.”

Arya sighs. “And what happens when y’all decide to go to the bar without me?”

“If we go anywhere, it’ll be Congress. And you can get in, they will just mark your hand because you’re underage.”

Arya just shrugs her indifference as Sansa struts out of her bedroom to presumably get the stupid bedsheet ghost costumes Theon is insisting on. She looks down at her where her phone sits on her bed before making a split-second decision.  
  


Arya: yeah, that could b cool.

Gendry: sweet c u @ the party?

Arya: u can count on it

**Author's Note:**

> Part Two is on the way! Please let me know what you think!


End file.
